Fly Tying

Fly Tying

The art of attaching feathers, fur, wool, and silk to a tiny hook to create artificial lures that imitate insects, a skill easily mastered by anyone who can peel a grape blindfolded with a pair of tweezers and a butter knife while wearing oven mitts.

Pattern

Pattern

Characteristic size, shape, color, and texture of a fly fishing lure. Although there are hundreds of patterns, most fall into one of two categories: "dummies" or "foolers," with a proven ability to alarm and annoy fish, that are prominently displayed on a hat brim or vest pocket and generously lent to fellow anglers; and "actuals'" highly effective stream-tested designs that are hidden in a fly book or tucked away in an inside pocket.

Terrestrial

Pattern

Term for a type of fly like the Muddler or Hopper designed to imitate a ground dwelling insect that fell in the water. Similar lures tied by an exceptionally clumsy angler that resemble insects that landed from another planet, like the Klingon Blood Worm, the Vulcan Earwig, or the Borg Drone Queen, are known as extraterrestrials.

Matching the Hatch

Matching the Hatch

1) The practice of creating various fly-casting lures that mimic the various stages of the life cycle of insect species favored by trout, from the time the flies hatch from eggs, shed their skin, swim to the surface, unfold their wings and fly, until they ultimately mate and fall lifeless onto the water.

2) The process through which an angler performs a similar
metamorphosis as he fishes for trout, first emerging from his sleeping bag at dawn and briefly feeding voraciously then, after embarking on a boat on the stream surface, suddenly rising unsteadily to his feet, extending his rod and casting, and finally moving into a brief but spectacular flying phase, followed by a longer aquatic or swiming phase.